Whore Next Door: Cabinet of Horrors

Siouxsie Q

2 years ago

(Photograph by Isabel Dresler/Isabeldresler.com)

Since the election, each morning I’ve woken up hoping it was all a bad dream. Listening to the daily reports of violence and hate crimes in schools and on the streets, along with the corruption and racism intrinsic to the way the United States governs itself — it feels like I’m living in a nightmarish re-imagining of The Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling’s fifth (and possibly most macabre) installment of the Harry Potter series.

With little encouragement or guidance from our current POTUS/Dumbledore, liberals are left wondering how to proceed in a nation that could soon look more like Hogwarts under Dolores Umbridge’s rule — at best.

I know that the reality of the way the power in this country has shifted is much graver than a young adult novel about wizards may be able to convey, but sometimes it’s easier to process issues of incredible magnitude through the lens of parable. Some people choose to use Bible stories to help them understand life and death, right and wrong. I use fantasy novels. That used to be what made America great, right?

Though Trump may not personally care so much about people who make erotic images for a living — he married one, and has even made a cameo in several soft-core releases — the parade of deplorables that the president-elect plans to surround himself with has leaders and lawyers in the world of porn shaking in our boots. We also face a Republican majority — the same party that declared porn a “public health crisis” at this year’s convention — in both houses.

And though I’m a pretty staunch prison abolitionist, certain power-hungry conservatives would probably be better off if they were just sent straight to Azkaban, prior to the Dementor exodus.

So as we prepare for the Second Wizarding War re-enactment here in the Muggle world of Trumpocalypse, here is a short list of folks who are most likely to ruin the lives of people who like sex in 2017 and beyond.

Rudy Giuliani

The possible future secretary of state famously used his time as mayor of New York City to “clean up” Times Square through strict zoning laws for X-rated video stores and topless bars. Rudy Giuliani also increased the criminalization of street-based sex workers and the homeless, permanently relegating adult businesses to boroughs outside Manhattan, and resulting in thousands of displaced workers and businesses. Although Giuliani’s inclusion in the Trump Cabinet is not yet in the bag, we can be sure that if Giuliani is chosen, he won’t be any kinder to marginalized workers this time around.

Ken Blackwell

Trump’s Domestic Issues Transition team is being led by Ken Blackwell of the oppressive Family Research Council (FRC), which views pornography as nothing short of a “plague in our nation.” Blackwell and the FRC believe adult-oriented content is not only addictive, but causes rape and sexual abuse. They’ve yet to take a position on what effect having a rapist as POTUS will have on the country, however.

Edwin Meese

A former attorney general and adviser to President Reagan, Edwin Meese, may be an Oakland native and Berkeley graduate, but this man is decidedly not a buddy to sex workers and pornographers. Responsible for the largely biased and inaccurate 1986 Meese Report created by the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, which studied the “harmful effects” of pornography and linked its history to “organized crime,” Meese is officially part of Trump’s transition team and would be a likely pick to stay on in some capacity in the administration.

Jeff Sessions

Last, but certainly not least is the Wormtail of the bunch. Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama was a potential running mate for the president-elect, but now has his hat in the ring to be the country’s next attorney general. Though Vivid CEO Steven Hirsch said during an industry meeting last week that it would be unlikely to get an obscenity charge under the current social climate, on Nov. 6, Sessions sponsored a resolution in the Senate Judiciary Committee to begin more vigorously enforcing obscenity laws, citing Meese’s incredibly biased report from 1986, categorizing the genre as “violent” and “degrading to most people.”

While almost anyone who is not a White nationalist has cause to be fearful in this new world order, sex workers need to prepare for a regime change that could take our fledgling movement backward in time.